Can Josh Malone carve out a role in Bengals' offense?

Lost in the shadow of a hope for a breakout from John Ross is Josh Malone.

The Cincinnati Bengals took Malone in the fourth round of the 2019 draft and to date, he’s caught just seven passes on 22 targets over 20 appearances.

Which at face value in Cincinnati isn’t totally fair. It isn’t easy to break onto the field with A.J. Green and Tyler Boyd on the depth chart — not to mention Malone was in the same draft class as Ross, a top-10 pick.

But heading into his third year, it’s clear folks in the building at Paul Brown Stadium still have hope, per Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com:

“Yes, I would definitely say that. The other two questions aren’t as easy, although Malone has looked better this spring and had a very nice day during the last practice of the spring last week. You can put John Ross in that third-year thing, too. They’re banking on Ross and Malone having some kind of a leap after two years that Tyler Boyd had.”

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But for Malone, the same hurdles still apply even though the Bengals now have an exciting offensive-minded coaching staff.

Green and Boyd are healthy and have plenty to prove in contract years. Ross will get the benefit of that new coaching staff too. Someone like Alex Erickson might see the field plenty thanks to his reliability in the past. And even Auden Tate, thanks to his mismatch creating ability, could carve out a role.

Where that leaves Malone is hard to say. He can separate and has good size at 6’3″, but even hinting at a breakout that matches Boyd’s from a season ago could be asking too much.

Malone may very well be capable of a third-year leap, but it will take some shuffling of the roster in front of him for onlookers to even see it.

And even before that — Malone has to prove to a new coaching staff he’s worth a roster spot.